Golf practice apparatus



Sept. 10, 1935. MUTH 2,014,145

GOLF PRACTI GE APPARATUS Filed Dec. 18, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 WAWWWWKW l l l l l l I wwxw m 7, 5.

INVENTOR, 77073 45 MMMZIL,

ATTORNEY T. H. MUTH GOLF PRACTICE APPARATUS Filed Dec. 18, 1 934 Sept; 10, 1935'.

2 Sheets-Sheet z l g 7/ 10 I g 30 26 2935 F 11 l I 16 T16 K v g .31 11C 110' f; "1;

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1a INVENTOR,

720mm fi BY 3 g ATTORNEY.

Patented Sept. 10, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 3 Claims.

This invention relates to practice apparatus and particularly to apparatus for use in practicing the driving, brassie and other long-distance strokes in the game of golf.

In devising the present apparatus I have sought to have the practicer experience substantially the same sensations when impact in the stroke occursas characterizes driving a free ball off a tee. To this end there is provided a revolver journaled on a substantially horizontal axis and provided with a pendulum and fulcrumed in the revolver is an impact-receiving member, preferably equipped with a ball, which is normally urged to a given position, as upright when the revolver is held byzits pendulum in a state of rest.

Given any revoluble system including an axial portion and an impact-receiving means projecting therefrom my invention further contemplates novel means whereby the extent to which said system is rotated upon impact may be be indicated and the indication thereupon preserved for a period determined by the practicer.

I In the drawings,

Fig. 1 shows the apparatus in front elevation, except for the platform which, with the ground, is shown in section;

Fig. 2 is a plan, with the platform partly broken away;

Fig. 3 a section on line 3-3, Fig. 2,

Fig. 4 is a View partly in left-side elevation and partly in section and on a longer scale of the revolver, its support and the controlling means for the spool ll;

Fig. 5 is a plan of said controlling means; and

Figs. 6 and 7 are front and side elevations of the revolver-head and its pivoted ball-carrying arm.

Let I be any suitable platform carried by uprights 2 which are here shown in a pit 3 in the ground, the platform having a slot 4 and a guide 5. On the bottom of the pit extending parallel with the slot is a horizontal heavy beam 5 forming a bed.

On this bed may be secured by bolts or the like 1 a plate 8 having two pairs of bearings 9 and 9a, the pair 9 being arranged in a line bisecting the slot and perpendicular thereto and the pair 9a in a line at one side of and paralleling the first line.

In the bearings 9 is journaled a shaft I l] which, with a metal head I l fixed thereon, forms the mentioned revolver. This head has a hole Ha to receive the shaft and at one side of this hole it is formed with a ponderous body I lb and at the opposite side with a relatively lighter stem Ho.

The body Hb is bifurcated in a plane coincident with the axis of the shaft whereby it forms a clamp to fix the head rigidly to the shaft upon tightening a screw l2 which penetrates one and is tapped into the other of the legs formed by a5. bifurcating the body; the body has at each side of its bifurcation a laterally projecting anvil Hal. The stem is also bifurcated, but in a plane perpendicular to the first plane. In this bifurcation, on a pin I311, is pivoted a lever 13 having a short 10 arm which is connected with a pin M at the base of the bifurcation by a light spring IS, the long arm thereof carrying a golf ball I6 forming in effect an enlargement thereof which may be screwed onto the end of such arm. The length of l5. the long arm. 53 is such that the ball, when struck, will impinge against one of the anvils. It will be understood that the plane of rotation of the head and the ball-carrying arm is the vertical plane of slot 4. Also that the normal position of 9 the revolver is that in which its stem stands upright, with its body or pendulum 8 lb pendent due to its superior weight; also that the normal position of the ball-carrying arm is upright, due to spring IS, the ball being above the platform. 25 A spool l1, having end bearings Ila and Nb, is journaled on shaft Ill between a collar l8 (remote from head I I) and a pin I9 penetrating the shaft and retained therein by being housed in a cavity of the bearing Ila, and on this spool is wound a flexible connection, as a cord, 2 one end of which is fast to the spool and the other end extending under a rotary guide-barrel 2i journaled in the bearings 9a and then up over a pulley 22 on the upright gage-board 23 and down, its other end carrying a weight 2a which coacts as an indicator with the scale shown on the board. When the player, who stands facing the board, strikes the ball with his club the revolver is rotated and the spool (as will appear), being held to rotate with the revolver, the cord is wound on the spool which elevates the weight. The revolver then coming to rest in the position of Fig. 1 holds the weight at the elevation it was thus made to assume. The operator then releases the spool from the revolver, permitting the former to rotate independently of the revolver under the pull of the weight until the cord is again fully extended. Hence the spool is disconnectively clutched with the revolver as follows: Forming in effect a part of the revolver by being secured to its shaft M3 by a screw 24 is a clutchmember 25 with which is permanently engaged a sliding clutch-member 26 in the present example these members have permanently inter-engaging teeth 21, so that the effect is that member 26 is splined to the shaft, or slidable thereon while held against rotation relatively thereto. Member 26 also coacts as a clutch with the bearing Ila of the spool, they having teeth 28 adapted to intermesh. A spring 29, contained within members 25 and 26, normally holds the latter engaged with the clutch member formed by hearing I'M.

A lever 30, fulcrumed on a pin 3| upstanding from plate 8, is engaged in the peripheral groove 26a of member 26. This lever is connected by a cord 32 with a bell-crank lever 33 pivoted in a bracket 34 on plate 8 and in turn connected with a push-rod 35 which extends through the guide 5, the lever being normally held elevated by a spring 33a. When the weight has been elevated as described the player may release the spool by pressure of his club on the push-rod 35, the ensuing release thereof resulting in the clutching together again of the spool and revolver.

- I have sought to have the club, on impact with the ball, meet as nearly as possible with the same kind of resistance as is experienced in driving a free ball 01f a tee. That is, the resistance directly incident to the impact is not that of the inertia of the entire revoluble system plus the weight of the indicator device 20a, but only that of the element |3l6, and whereas the latter travels in an arc, and thereby its momentum puts the entire revoluble system in rotation, the sensation to the player is practically the same as in driving a free ball off a tee. My invention therefore contemplates a revolver journaled on a substantially horizontal axis and including an axial portion and a pendulum extending from said portion, and a lever fulcrumed in the revolver on an axis substantially parallel with the first axis and normally urged to a given angular relation to its fulcruming axis, as by spring [5.

Given a revoluble system including an axial portion, as l82 5, and an impact-receiving means projecting from said portion, as ll--l3l6, my invention includes in combination therewith a back-and-forth movable indicator device, as weight 25a, normally urged in one direction, means to transmit motion in the opposite direction to said device including a revoluble actuator, as H, and a connection, as 20, connected to said device and having a running engagement with said element, and a clutch, as 26, to interlock said portion and element against relative rotation and splined to one and removable into and out of clutching engagement With the other of them. Having thus fully described my invention what I claim is:

1. In an apparatus for use in practicing the game of golf or the like, the combination of a supporting structure, a revolver journaled in said structure on a substantially horizontal axis and including an axial portion and a pendulum extending from said portion and normally maintaining said revolver in the position in which the pendulum is pendent, and a slender member having a terminal enlargement to be impinged by the players club and being pivoted in the revolver on an axis substantially parallel with the first-named axis and normally urged to upstanding position, said revolver having an anvil distanced from the pivot of said member the same as said enlargement is distanced therefrom and arranged to be impinged by the latter on pivotal movement of said member.

2. In an apparatus for use in practicing the game of golf or the like, the combination of a supporting structure, a revolver journaled in said structure on a substantially horizontal axis and including an axial portion and a pendulum extending from said portion and normally maintaining said revolver in the position in which the pendulum is pendent, and a slender member having a terminal enlargement to be impinged by the players club and being pivoted in the revolver on an axis substantially parallel with the firstnamed axis and normally urged to upstanding position and movable therefrom through at least 90, said revolver having an anvil distanced from the pivot of said member the same as said enlargement is distanced therefrom and arranged to be impinged by the latter on pivotal movement of said member.

3. In an apparatus of the class described, the combination of a rotary system including two rotary elements and a clutch connecting them for rotation together and movable to disconnect said elements, supporting structure in which said system is journaled, one element being adapted to be rotated in a given direction and having its axis substantially horizontal and also having a pendulum extending therefrom substantially radially with respect to said axis, and gravityactuated means connected with the other element and acting through the latter to oppose rotation of the first element in said direction when said elements are connected by the clutch.

THOMAS H. MUTH. 

